Negative electricity prices: when the exchange pays you to take power
The calculator counts the quarter hours with a negative exchange price for each recent day. Switch the view to daily or monthly averages.
Negative quarter hours in 41 days
76
on 5 days, Germany
| Lowest exchange price | -0.3 ct/kWh |
| Equivalent hours | 19.00 |
Day-ahead wholesale prices: Bundesnetzagentur | SMARD.de (CC BY 4.0), fetched on 24 October 2026. Calculation: Radif Partners
A negative electricity price means that, for a given quarter hour, more power is offered than wanted on the day-ahead market, so generators pay to be allowed to deliver it. It happens mostly on sunny, windy days with low demand, such as weekend middays when solar panels run flat out and inflexible plants cannot ramp down fast enough. In the German and Luxembourg zone, 76 quarter hours fell below zero between 15 September 2026 and 25 October 2026, spread over 5 of 41 days; the lowest was -0.30 ct/kWh on 27 September 2026 at 12:45. In the Dutch zone the count was 121, with a low of -0.50 ct/kWh. On a dynamic tariff that rarely means money back: grid fees, taxes and levies stay the same per kWh, with VAT on top. Even at the lowest German exchange price of the period, the all-in price before any markup was still about 20.2 ct/kWh, and in the Netherlands about 10.5 ct/kWh. Such quarter hours are cheap all the same, and they are where flexible use belongs.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
Negative quarter hours in recent weeks
| Bidding zone | Quarter hours below zero | Days with negative prices | Lowest value | on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 76 | 5 | -0.30 ct/kWh | 27 September 2026 |
| Netherlands | 121 | 5 | -0.50 ct/kWh | 25 October 2026 |
| Austria | 26 | 3 | -0.75 ct/kWh | 28 September 2026 |
| Belgium | 71 | 5 | -0.32 ct/kWh | 10 October 2026 |
The count is based on the quarter-hourly values from Bundesnetzagentur | SMARD.de: wholesale electricity prices (CC BY 4.0). Since all zones are cleared in one joint auction, negative prices often hit several countries at once; how strongly depends on each country’s wind and solar capacity and on how full the border lines are.
Why the all-in price almost never turns negative
Each German kilowatt-hour carries fixed amounts whatever the exchange price: the grid fee, electricity tax under Electricity Tax Act (StromStG), section 3, the levies and the concession fee, with VAT under German VAT Act (UStG), section 12 on top. In the Netherlands the energy tax from the Environmental Taxes Act (Wbm), articles 59 and 63 (1 January 2026) and VAT do the same. Only if the exchange price fell further than that sum would the all-in price go negative, and that did not happen in the period shown.
What you can do with it
Use that can be moved belongs in these quarter hours: charging the car, a heat pump with storage, a washing machine with a delay timer. Cheapest hour finds them for tomorrow once prices are published, and Dynamic electricity tariff shows how such days add up over a month.